The Society of Saint Gregory the Great is a membership association of Catholic laity formed in 2008 to promote divine worship in accordance with the Supreme Magisterium of the Church. The Society has its own schola cantorum, and regularly sponsors presentations and workshops on the Sacred Liturgy, Gregorian chant, and sacred polyphony.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Diocese of Baker Chant Workshop

The Diocese of Baker is holding a Gregorian chant workshop! This is certainly welcome news!

Here are the details from the Diocese of Baker website; I’ve lifted everything from the flyer, which you can find here.

Date: August 15 - 17, 2013

Registration information:

Patti Rausch Diocese of Baker Chancery Office

prausch@dioceseofbaker.org 541-388-4004

General information:

Judy Newport

mothermarysdhtrs@aol.com 541-923-6946

You’ll notice, of course, that the conference coincides with the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mass for that feast will be celebrated by Bishop Liam Cary at 7pm at St. Mary’s Chapel at the Powell Butte Retreat Center.

According to the brochure, the Gregorian Chant conference will provide a unique and much needed focus on how to understand Gregorian chant and its place in the Sung Roman Liturgy. The four lectures cover the topics:

What is Gregorian Chant;

The origins and history of Gregorian chant;

How Gregorian Chant fulfills the criteria for Traditional Art and Sacred Music;

Differentiation of Gregorian chant according to form and function within the liturgy;

The sung liturgy and the music designated for priest, deacon, lector, schola, and congregation;

Church documents on Gregorian Chant.

St. Mary's Chapel

The conference will also provide workshops for those who want to learn to sing the Order of Mass and the Ordinary of Mass. This will include introduction to solfage and the reading square note notation.

The conference will be conducted in the context of prayer and spiritual renewal with the sacrament of reconciliation, daily Mass, and the liturgy of the hours.

The conference will end with the Vigil Mass Saturday at 7:00 pm for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time celebrated by Fr. Daniel Maxwell. For those who are staying overnight, it will end with sung Compline.

The speakers and celebrants for the event are as follows:

Dr. Lynne Bissonnette-Pitre

Featured Lecturer and Workshop Leader:

Lynne Bissonnette-Pitre, MD, PhD

Lynne is a physician specialized in psychiatry, practicing in Portland, Oregon. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University; a doctorate at John Hopkins University; and a medical degree at University of California, Irvine. She did her internship and residency in psychiatry, as well as two years fellowship in child psychiatry, at the University of Oregon.

Lynne’s background in music includes proficiency in the musical instruments: piano, viola, alto saxophone, and mandolin. She played in orchestra, marching band, and jazz band, and sang in choir and a women’s ensemble while in school. Lynne sang in the Portland Cathedral choir for 12 years, and has served for 7 years as director and cantor for the Gregorian Chant Schola Cantus Angelorum. She has also sung in Gregorian Scholas in Corning, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; and Bavaria, Germany.

Workshop Leader: Yumiko Rinta

Yumiko has studied piano for 17 years, is proficient in voice and flute and, has played in ensembles and sung in the choir in Tokyo, Japan. She studied harpsichord in Portland, Oregon, under Nancy Metzger, who now resides in Sacramento, California. Nancy Metzger is a renowned harpsichordist/organist, author, and professor of music. In the US, Yumiko has sung with the Saint Paul Cathedral Choir and the St. Mary’s Cathedral choir in Portland, Oregon. She has been cantor and co-director of Schola Cantus Angelorum for 7 years.

Workshop Leader: Reverend Daniel Maxwell

As a convert from the Anglican tradition, Fr. Maxwell has a deep love of the sacred liturgy and of sacred music. He served as organist and cantor for several parishes for nearly twenty years before his ordination in 2009 as a priest of the Diocese of Baker.